Make Time for Playtime

We all get busy. As Mom’s we have 101+ things to accomplish each and every day. Sometimes we have to accomplish 101+ things and a full-time job. Regardless of how tired you are, or how stressed or under deadline you are, you have to take time for playtime.

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I don’t mean a few moments of relaxation. I mean, actually taking 10 minutes for playtime with your kiddo.

Sometimes that means getting on the floor, feeding baby dinosaurs to the giant dinosaur and watching it poop them out. Yes, we have that toy thanks to Santa.

Other times it’s answering the pretend phone and assuming you’ve been called to superhero duty.

And, sometimes, it’s a little more structured than that. But I’ll give you four ideas for activities that won’t take much time to plan and don’t have to cost a thing.

Four Easy (Winter) Activities for Playtime

Sledding

We were lucky enough to get over a foot of snow in one night this past winter. And, being North Carolina, it meant no school, work, open stores, delivered mail, you name it.

As soon as the sun rose enough to break some of the chill, we shirked responsibilities of homework and housework and bundled in countless layers of clothing to brave the elements.

There’s a little slope next to our apartment building and that worked well enough as a sledding hill.

We tromped across the street to the neighborhood park and went down the snow covered slide, tossed a few snowballs at each other and #1 and Hubs made snow angels. Though, I’m pretty sure #1’s wasn’t planned and was more of a graceful fall into the snow and struggle to stand up.

Indoor Snowball Fight

This brings me to this weekend. The meteorologists called for an ice storm and about an inch of snow. When we awoke the trees were glazed with ice but the roads were fine and there wasn’t even a dusting of snow. Disappointed, we settled for an indoor snowball fight.

I recently purchased some faux, fuzzy snowballs on clearance at Target. The pack came with 10 balls total and it was just the right amount for me and #1 to gang up on Hubs for a snowball fight!

Now, if you don’t have, or can’t find, these faux snowballs, you can order them online, or use balled up socks. Hubs’ socks are plenty big enough to make good sized “snowballs,” but they do pack more of a wallop than the faux balls ever could. So, despite the lack of snow outside, we had quite a blast inside.

Tea Party (even for boys!)

A tea party seems obvious and easy, but I found it hard to find recommendations for a tea party-style event for little boys. I took a note from Toy Story and invited “Mrs. Nesbit” and Rex. Then I:

We set places for the extra “guests” of Buzz Lightyear and Rex and even gave them a sandwich and single cheese ball. Hubs joined in on the fun too and we all spoke with silly accents.

The beauty of it is, it’s what I would’ve put together for lunch. Hubs and I just made it into bite-sized portions and set a couple extra places. So we had a few more dishes, it was worth it for a memorable afternoon.

Faux Movie
Theater

This one comes out quite frequently as we try to prep #1 for his first trip to the movie theater. Well, second trip, but first full trip. We tried to take him to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but after 20 minutes, he was over it.

For this, we move our couch parallel with the television, choose a good movie on cable or Netflix, pop some popcorn and scrounge up some chocolate candies. We turn off the lights and close the blinds to make sure it’s nice and dark like a theater, too.

I’m happy to say, we are at about a 50% chance of #1 sitting still in a real movie theater now. Maybe we’ll have another practice round tonight.

Take Time for Playtime

Just doing a couple of small things to something you’ve already planned on, can take a regular activity and turn it into a memorable one that your kiddos will talk about for weeks. Until you come up with the next memorable activity, that is!

Regardless of what activity you do, or how much planning you put into it. Take time for playtime. I promise it will be fun!